International Forecaster Weekly

Looting Social Security For Wall Street

Looting Social Security for Wall Street... breaking a system that isnt broke... Elitist wars for Elitist priorities... Arnold Schwarznegger getting weaker with every day in office... a record number of warrants and wiretaps... textiles from China flood America... Montana reacts to Patriot Act... deficit funded lifestyles, a prelude to martial law, and more...

Bob Chapman | April 9, 2005

Our President's attack on Social Security is a looting operation that would destroy the system and give Wall Street over $1 trillion in income.

In 70 years of Social Security no other administration produced zero revenue growth as the neocons did in 2002-2003. In fact, the system only grew 5% between 2001-2004, rather than the normal 5-7%. This substandard growth was due to lack of employment, or put another way, via the movement of industry and outsourcing by US transnational elitist corporations. This fall in employment has affected productivity growth, caused wage stagnation and eventually will affect GDP growth. In spite of this, Social Security is on sounder footing than our federal budget deficit, consumer debt, our current account deficit, the housing bubble and a falling dollar. It is about time America got its priorities straight.

From 1985-2000, employment in the US labor force grew by 1.6% a year, or 27.7% over 15 years. Social Security tax revenue, a portion of GDP, grew .55% during that time from 4.7% to 5.25%. As of 2005, jobs growth of 1.5% means about 2 million new jobs a year.

In order to create new jobs to keep employment up and Social Security revenue up, some have called for a Marshal Plan for American infrastructure. That isn